Comparisons are not always odious: Use of contrast between proverbs for the development of intercultural competence in language learning

Abstract

Phraseology, in general, and paremiology, in particular –the latter understood as “tratado de refranes” (RAE 2014)– are usually absent in Spanish as a Foreign Language (SFL) manuals, despite the linguistic and cultural richness their learning entails. In the field of linguistics applied to language teaching, activities of translation and contrast between phraseological units favour the development of analytical abilities to make comparisons between languages, and the learner’s intercultural competence.

This work represents a practical experience with students of the Northwest Cádiz Program (https://spanport.washington.edu/study-abroad/northwest-cadiz-program), who came to Cádiz from the University of Washington to learn SFL and improve their knowledge of the Spanish culture.

The work is in line with Mariscal Ríos (2020a), where activities for the teaching of Spanish Language 303 (“Lengua III”) were described. In this case, the group was made up of students of Spanish Language 302 (“Lengua II”), with an intermediate level of Spanish, equivalent to B1 of Plan Curricular del Instituto Cervantes (Centro Virtual Cervantes).

Through an active methodology based on meaningful, autonomous learning, the students carried out a multilingual contrastive analysis of animal proverbs by using data from Refranero Multilingüe (Sevilla Muñoz & Zurdo Ruiz-Ayúcar 2009), as well as other tasks to improve both their communication skills and intercultural competence.

The results were positive both in terms of their learning of the Spanish grammar and the development of their intercultural awareness, with the students showing interest for the knowledge of coincidences and differences between the proverbs in their own language/culture and those of the target language/culture.